east gable of the choir, with its great window surmounting the arch of the lady-chapel, is "unsatisfactory"; and though the marble mosaics of the north aisle of the nave are, from a chromatic point of view, hardly so successful as glass mosaic would have been; and though the window glass throughout the cathedral is, save in some cases, not of high order, yet, in the interior tout ensemble, no false note spoils the general harmony of form and proportion, or the poetry of light and shadow of the long and lovely vista; and it must be allowed that the treatment of the great organ-case under the north transept arch, together with the organette, surmounting, as a large and handsome pinnacle, the centre of the choir-screen, is a distinct success; while the vaulting of the cathedral with oak instead of stone gives proof of the sound constructive judgment of Sir Gilbert Scott, as well as of his fine appreciation of harmony of colour between the wood and stone. It is a matter for thankfulness that at Chester Sir Gilbert did not introduce, as he did at Durham Minster, designs in Italian Gothic utterly foreign to the spirit and style of the English church builders; for however pleasing such designs may be in themselves, they become, when placed in such false positions, offensively unwelcome.

From an archæological point of view, the most interesting part of Mr. Hiatt's volume is the latter part, wherein he describes the conventual buildings attached to the northern side of the cathedral. This portion of the book might well claim a review to itself.

Of all the excellent photographic views which enliven our author's pages, none are so exquisite as the interiors of the cathedral itself, which are fine specimens of photographic art.

In the body of the work reference is casually -much too casually-made to the fact that a man named George Marsh was tried for his life in the lady-chapel on a charge of "heresy," about the time of the Reformation, and was afterwards burnt at Boughton, near by. But while the pinnacles, arches, towers, and tombs of Chester glorify the sepulchres of nobles and priests, no monument to the memory of the martyr seems yet to have been raised by the good folks of the city whose pious ancestors burnt him. If the glory of martyrdom is of all glories the highest, a fitting memorial to the martyr of Chester would be a noble spire crowning that cathedral in which his doom was cruelly sealed, and thus surmounting, as it were, its darkest tradition by the brightness of his devotion, and so exalting good over evil.

The visitor to Chester who reads Mr. Hiatt's book must think it strange that Dean Howson, who so powerfully contributed to Conybeare and Howson's justly celebrated literary memorial of St. Paul, should have become the mainspring of the restoration of the lady-chapel of Chester Cathedral, without, so far as Mr. Hiatt gives his

readers to understand, taking any steps or making any effort to perpetuate and glorify the memory of the local martyr. This would indeed tempt such visitor to feel that martyrs as well as prophets lack appreciation in their own country. May those who are now responsible for Chester Cathedral, and jealous for its honour, take this consideration to heart! FRANK CAWS.

Sunderland.

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A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON PLASTERING. Plastering, Plain and Decorative. A Practical Treatise on the Art and Craft of Plastering and Modelling. By William Millar, Plasterer and Modeller, with an Introductory Chapter by G. T. Robinson, F.S.A. 40. Lond. 1897. Price 18s. [B. T. Batsford, 94, High Holborn, W.C.]

There is a good deal of what might be very well designated as "shop knowledge which every efficient architect ought to know. Paper design is with us, and we cannot conveniently do without it; situated as we are in the perplexities of close estimating, our requirements have to be exact. To render such truly artistic, and fit to occupy any position which circumstance may suggest, experimental practice on the scaffold or in the shop seems indispensable. For to don a blouse does not involve humility, but, contrariwise, imparts a certain dignity to the artist.

To illustrate the point: an elementary acquaintance with stone cutting will reveal such difficulties and problems to be solved, that the architect will learn naturally its possibilities from the material itself, and the restrictions it places on anomalies of design. This principle applies all round, to lead, wood, plaster, and everything which has to be wrought by a skilled hand.

Now all this has a bearing on the bulky volume under notice, for its author, a practical and accomplished craftsman, is most lavish in his description of methods which will aid us considerably in doing a little daubing ourselves with the plastic materials, the possibilities of which are endless. As already indicated, knowledge obtained by personal experience will bring fresh life and interest. to our drawing-boards, enabling us to produce what we want, because we know a little of the possibilities. In this way simpler, more suitable, and more desirable productions will undoubtedly

result.

We are here introduced to " Plastering, Plain and Decorative," the treatment of which, from the craftsman's standpoint, is pretty nearly exhaustive. It is viewed by the author in a most comprehensive manner; for he deals with materials of all qualities and their several uses. He discusses the diminishing and working out of circular mouldings, all branches of plastering, modelling, casting and colouring, and the manufacture of compositions of the plastic trades from scagliola to terracotta and concrete, adding a rudimentary treatise

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on Geometry and Architecture, tools and appliances, winding up with an appendix and a good index. What more can any emulative plasterer need? He can find everything here sorted and condensed. Intrinsic interest apart, the book in itself is a monument of research and industry, and the author is to be congratulated on having sur

"A Glimpse of its History." This fills some twenty-three pages, and the interest Mr. Robinson arouses makes the reader wish for more.

The artistic history of plastering has yet to be written; but Mr. Millar deals with it partially in a short and terse manner. He also treats succinctly of foreign plastering-Saracenic, Indian, Moorish, Chinese, and Continental. In all of this he shows himself to be no prentice hand, but a plasterer and the son of a plasterer, a veritable child of the clay.

It is impossible adequately to notice a large work such as this, which, apart from its usefulness, contains a vast amount of generally unknown interesting information. With reference to hair, we are informed that in America ox hair is adulterated with that of the horse and goat; while in Scotland it is taken direct from the tan-yard in a wet state; also that human hair is not infrequently used in jerry-building. There are other substitutes for ordinary materials, such as sawdust, which is used instead of sand in wall plastering. There is not an architect who at one time or another has not been exercised about painting cement work. The author states that the Keene's cement, manufactured by Howe of Carlisle, is practically nonefflorescent, and later he proceeds to describe how cement work may be successfully painted Caustic :lime, which is not in a state of combination in cement, saponifies the oil used in painting." To obviate this, fresh white cheese and fresh slaked fat lime are added to the desired colour. This solution hardens rapidly, and is insoluble in water, a formation of albuminate of lime taking place. The proportions are three of cheese and one of lime, well mixed with the colour.

vived and triumphed over the mishaps which have waylaid his great project.

The whole volume is carefully illustrated, and there is much of very real and practical value and suggestive help to the practising architect, in the illustrations and text, for both in description and direction the author goes fully into detail. A prefatory note comes from the pen of the late Mr. G. T. Robinson, F.S.A., who also contributes a most interesting introductory chapter to "Plastering, Plain and Decorative," headed

After an unusually complete and interesting account of the materials and methods of Gesso work, in which connection Mr. Millar goes to the MS. of Cennino Cennini, we are initiated into the mysteries of scagliola, a preparation which the author delights to honour, and desires to see revived. This is said to have been invented in the early part

of the sixteenth century by Guido Sassi, of Cari in Lombardy; but it is more probable that he revived an ancient process.

The use of coloured plaster for imitating marbles was known to the ancients, although the pure white, or marmoratum opus and albarium opus, mentioned by Pliny, was more used. Mr. Wilson, in the Edinburgh New Phil. Journal, 1841, writes: "Plastering is now carried to great perfection in Italy. The rooms are so finished that no additional work in the shape of house-painting is required, the polish of the plaster and its evenness of tint rivalling porcelain. Scagliola is the material chiefly used. At times the surface of the plaster is fluted, or various designs are executed in intaglio upon it in the most beautiful manner."

be formed of the splendour of this gorgeous apartment by conceiving a room fifty feet square with the walls, galleries, and columns rising with a richly coloured and highly polished surface.

About sixty years ago scagliola wares were sold in auction rooms, which brought the true scagliola into disrepute, and drove it from the market. Mr. Millar goes minutely into its manufacture, and there is not a marble he cannot produce to order.

Our author is the most versatile of craftsmen. During the Belt and Lawes furore he was engaged giving entertainments at the Theatre Royal,

Many notable buildings contain interesting specimens of scagliola: the Reform Club, St. Mary's, Islington, St. Pancras Church, St. Philip's, Regent Street, Northumberland House (now the site of the Grand Hotel), and the Albert Hall. It was used on the grand staircase at Buckingham Palace, and a range of columns in the Throne Room, some a bright scarlet, and others a rich blue in imitation of lapis lazuli.

The Duke of Sutherland's town house, originally built for the Duke of York, is rich in scagliola. The staircase walls are in giallo antique, the architraves and fluted columns supporting the roof are in granite, and the balustrade richly moulded in brocatello. Some slight idea may

Bradford, "modelling busts of the Prince of Wales, and sometimes men selected from the audience, à la Belt." The whole method of architectural model making is described, and the representation of varied materials by means of sand and inarble dust, to say nothing of casting the parts repeated. Mr. Millar thinks that all this, if definitely designed, might enable the architect to avoid "extras and subsequent recriminations." One rather questions that suggestion.

Although the ancient examples are selected. with discrimination, the volume is somewhat marred by the introduction of questionable modern specimens; a fact which makes one apprehensive

of its influence on the unsophisticated apprentice, whom we wish to see free from the taint of such inartistic abominations. These would haunt the memory of any young student. But where Mr. Millar keeps within the province he has so ably explored-viz. that of method-we have nothing but admiration for the thoroughness of his research.

This encyclopædic work is one for reference. To the apprentice it will prove indispensable; and a study of the past methods Mr. Millar describes will go a long way to improving craftsmanship and reviving a wellnigh lost art. For the directions relating to materials, setting out of work, and other important matters, the young architect will always be grateful to the author.

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WILLIAM A. PITE.

INDIAN ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY. On the Muhammadan Architecture of Bharoch, Cambay, Dholka, Champanir, and Mahmudabad in Gujarat. By Jas. Burgess, C.I.E., LL.D., F.R.S.E., &c. Fo. Lond. and Calcutta. 1896.

This work consists of seventy-seven plates and forty-seven pages of letterpress; the preface intimates that it is the smaller of two volumes; the larger one, which is still in preparation, will deal almost exclusively with Ahmadâbâd, the capital of Gujarat. The two volumes when completed are intended to give a fairly comprehensive view of the Muslim architecture of the district.

Lately, in noticing Mr. Cave's work, The Ruined Cities of Ceylon,* I chanced to remark that if Mr. Smither's plans and sections could have been combined with the photographic reproductions, the two together would have formed a nearly perfect work on the subject. It is this happy union which we have in the volume now under consideration; and we can here study the remains almost as well as if we were on the spot. Photographs of each monument are given, from which the present condition of the structure may be seen, and the exact character of every detail in the ornamentation may be realised. Plans and sections show the arrangement as well as the constructive features; to these are added drawings of parts of importance, such as the beautiful designs of roofs, which form a special characteristic of the architecture of this part of India. This smaller volume only whets the appetite for the larger one that is promised on Ahmadâbâd.

The first chapter is devoted by Dr. Burgess to a very careful historical notice of Gujarat; and after reading in it the seemingly constant state of fighting that went on-murders, revolts, wars, and sieges, with the consequent destruction of towns and monuments-the marvel is that any architectural works could have been produced, or that any of them could now be found existing.

* JOURNAL, Vol. IV. 3rd ser. p. 404.

When the Emperor Jahângîr made a state visit to Gujarat in time of peace, on arriving at Ahmadâbâd, the capital, he ordered the buildings erected by his father, "such at least as in my eyes appeared unworthy of his memory, to be demolished;" destruction, however, was not his object, for he adds that he caused " others of greater magnificence to be erected in their stead."* If Jahângîr had tried to improve upon any of Akbar's structures in the North-West of India, the result might have been doubtful; for it was in his reign that the first incipient signs appeared of the decadence that finally ruined the Muhammadan architecture in that quarter. In Gujarat the style was different from that of Delhi and Agra, and the influences affecting it also varied; still Dr. Burgess states in the preface that it was in the seventeenth century that the decay also began there.

It is only in name that this particular architecture of Gujarat is called "Muhammadan;" in reality it is almost wholly Hindu or Jaina. We have this so very clearly defined by Fergusson that his words are worth quoting :-" Even the mosques are Hindu, or rather Jaina, in every detail; only here and there an arch is inserted, not because it was wanted constructively, but because it was a symbol of the faith, while in their tombs and palaces even this is generally wanting. The truth of the matter is, the Mahomedans had forced themselves upon the most civilised and most essentially building race at that time in India, and the Chalukyas conquered their conquerors, and forced them to adopt forms and ornaments which were superior to any the invaders knew or could have introduced."+ In Western India the Muhammadans began as they did on their first arrival in India at other places; they utilised the materials of the existing Hindu or Jaina temples, of which there are two well-known examples; one at the Kutub in old Delhi, and the other being the "Arhai din ka Jhompra" at Ajmere. In the Jami Masjid of Baroch, from the

*Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangueir, written by himself. Price's Translation, p. 117.

Indian and Eastern Architecture, p. 527.

Mr. W. Crook, in his lately published work on The North-Western Provinces of India, gives a list of places where Hindu temples have been converted into mosques. He writes:" Thus Altamsh built the mosque at Budaun on the ruins of a Saiva shrine. The mosque at Amroha has still the old Hindu chain hanging from its roof, that at Hathgâon in Fatehpur has been built out of the ruins of four Hindu temples, and the same is the case with Mandawar in Bijnor, Matâban and Nol Jhil in Mathura, Etawah, Ajudhya, and many other places. In fact, when we remember that to the early Musalmâns the destruction of a Hindu shrine furnished the destroyer with a ready means of building a house for himself on earth as well as in heaven, it is wonderful that so many temples should have survived to our day" [p. 84]. One of the " Sayings of the Prophet was:-" For him who builds a mosque for Allah, Allah will build a house in Paradise."-W. S.